Flimsy Alert! ~ Make that Two, thanks to Cabin Fever 2!!

Last week I had the best time at the Cabin Fever 2 retreat. It's the perfect event for me: A four-day bring-your-own-projects focus with little make-and-take demos each day in a stunningly beautiful luxury mountain cabin with no cell reception and hardly any wifi. . . Lots of work gets accomplished, I'm telling you!

How could we not love sewing it up at a location like this??  (stock photo from their rental site here:)

I don't have many photos, as I was MADLY SEWING on something that you won't see for some time. But the first thing I did was zip together the blocks for my "Boomerang" quilt. The pattern is by Emily of Crazy Old Ladies, and as she's one of the retreat organizers, she was on hand to help hold it up for the photo. Awesomeness  :D

The blocks had been made a good year ago, so I was excited to have the perfect excuse to pull them out even though this project was not on the current priority list. It didn't take too long to finish up, and then I hit the project that has true urgency right now. 

During the two and a half retreat days that I dedicated to Top Secret, I nibbled away on my adorable cookie, 

made this pocketed mug mat to keep my mug on, [There was a lot of fun swag, as well, from sponsors - coupons, I won a notions pouch and charm packs, and that orange baggy has the other two make-and-takes that I look forward to finishing during TV time: a new approach for a paper-pieced pin cushion, and a golf-tee based bobbin/thread connector.]

This other charm pack from swag was off playing with the Kona color card when I was snapping shots:

and this adorable clutch that Shannon prepped (SHOWER CURTAIN GROMMET for an inexpensive yet super cute closure!!! genius!):

and marveled at the creativity of folks who brought some fantastic gifts they'd made for everyone. I mean, check out this pin cushion below that Cheryl made for everyone! The weight of the wood frame base is wonderful when you want to move between your machine and a sofa for detailed pinning work.

And this thread catcher! Too clever!!! Seriously. (I need to find out who made these so I can credit her.)  They use a mini embroidery hoop inside the top rim and a circle of wood(?) at the base, and stand up like this with NO interfacing - 

- Until you want to pack things up, they twist and nestle into themselves so they take up hardly any space at all in your notions shoebox!

April even made these fun night masks for her roommies!:

Sometimes when I was up to do some pressing, I went "dumpster diving" in the trash cans near me to pull out scraps folks didn't want. I intend to start working on an Omigosh type quilt in a few months, so anything you can cut a square inch out of works. Patti was so amused at that concept, that she sent me box after she got home - I was expecting jumbled scraps, but it was full of charm and crumb packs she won't use! What fun!  :D

And after I finished all the work on Top Secret that I could do there, I snuck in some time on the last half day to start my Leaded Glass project. I only managed this much:

The pieces for this had been laid out at home before I left, and my two older daughters helped shift things around until we thought it worked nicely. The gathering up involved some meticulous organization, so instead of shelving this when I got home, it went straight to the work area. I've just finished putting it together today, so my work area is once again free for Top Secret and my cover projects. Isn't this pretty? It's a Tracey Jacobsen design that I tweaked just a smidge. 

I may or may not take the outer edges back off. I kind of liked it without the white border and lobes. Or maybe I'll border it in dark blue like the pool table's color. . . 

But it's going to be a long time before it gets a turn at quilting, so I have time to think about things.  :)

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Linking up at:

Fabric Tuesday

Keep It Simple, Make It Fun

WIPs Be Gone

Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!

Link-a-Finish Friday

WIP - Binding, Masking, and FMQ

I haven't done a WIP post in forever. How fun to have time for one again.  :D

I **finally** finished all the clean-up work on my king-size double wedding ring a couple of days ago! That part alone took exactly 62 hours, and I started the process early in August. So now I "just" have to get the binding stitched down for a long-awaited special finish. This is my top priority project.  I'm 5/38 finished, and I figure it'll take about 16 more more movies to get all the way around. . .

Those points with their double inner angles and skinny acute tips are BUGGERS to fiddle with! And the only way to secure them well enough for sewing up is with straight pins. Makes for porcupine work if you don't pay careful enough attention when you shift around.  heh!

I just love looking at the quilting on this - wow, am I happy with it! And to think that I did it all on a mere domestic table-top machine...

Two other projects get almost-daily focus. When my fingers are just too tired from fine hand stitching, I go down to the machines and work on the FMQ for Kelly's second Joseph Smith quilt. Some of the latest work includes the vases and vines in the bow-tie area:

The third official WIP has to be kept completely off my blog and I can only sneak in short work times when both of two people are gone from the house. I keep a masking project on hand, ready to "throw" under my needle like a leader-ender project so I can snip off the chaining work of the real project and hide it away quickly. 

I'm getting very tired of only working on reproduction stuff UFO/NETY stash. Also, while it's absolutely gorgeous, my DWR has been in front-and-center position for 14 months straight, so I set aside the Thanksgiving wallhanging I'd been using for my masking project and pulled out this perky, far more modern project. 

I love my Boomerang fabrics!! They're a fun hodge-podge of scraps from my bin, old pieces from my stash, and brand-new fat quarters from a shop in the Springs. I started working on these back in February for a NewFO, but put them away at the end of that month as this project was not a priority. But it's perfect for lifting my "I miss moderns blues".  

Now they just need a side strip of white before I start laying them out for assembly. I love scrappy quilts!

And what a fun pattern to work with. It's by Emily Herrick over at Crazy Old Ladies. 

This is my second go-'round with the pattern. I made a smaller version with it as a baby quilt from my stash early in the year. 

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Linking up at

Esther's WOW

Leanne & Nicki's Scraptastic Tuesday

Lee's WIP

Marelize's ANYTHING GOES

Finish Report! Baby Claridge 1.0 - Boomerangs for Olivia and her Boy

Can you believe it? A finish report coming out of me this year?  ;D  They will be very few between my thesis work and my MONSTER "25th, Baby!" king-size double wedding ring quilting that I'm trying hard to finish in time for our anniversary in August. But I do have two posts that need to be put up.

 

 

This is "Baby Claridge 1.0"

It's made for my cousin's daughter, who just had a precious little boy. On Mother's Day. How awesome is that?

 

 

 

I used mostly stash with a couple of fat quarters (Sesame Street! and a yellow), using Emily Herrick's Crazy Old Ladies pattern, "Boomerang".  I just made fewer boomerangs, and after I had them assembled I trimmed the top and bottom straight across. Here's the original on the pattern:

 

 

 

 

I quilted this entirely on the walking foot. Wanting to highlight the boomerangs, I simply outline-stitched each one about 1/16" outside in a thread that matched the background, then I used a wavy stitch to sew two lines on the insides with whatever thread matched best, and using a couple different guide points on my foot for that. 

 

 

 

Wanting to minimize the seams between the boomerangs, I found a fun decorative stitch on the machine and put that between the sides. I was thinking they looked kinda-sorta like lines of baseballs - perfect for a little boy! 

 

 

 

 

And, yep - I went for the start-and-stop  approach with each one rather than sew them through the boomerangs above and below. It wasn't that big a deal to sit down in front of a movie to tie and tuck all my ends from each 'rang and divider line.

 

 I have tons of yardage of this fun hot air balloon fabric, which was perfect for the backing on this.

 

 

 

And that led to a fun idea for the label.  (Which I had to redo - thank you! - due to misspelling the little guy's name despite frequent checking on that.)

 

 

 

 

It has a lightweight poly batting, which makes a nice puffiness without being stiff that will be highly washable. 

 

LOVED working with this pattern. The design is perky and the instructions are easy to follow. In fact, I have another one in a different colorway for myself that I'd started back in April or so. I'll probably get back to it in August after the MONSTER's quilting is finished.

 

 

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Linking up at

Fabric Tuesday

TGIFF is at Quokka Quilts this week

(main site here)
   

Can I get a Whoop! Whoop!

Link-a-Finish Friday

March Reports

Here is my March wrap-up:

Something Old/Something New -

This category of my goals took a big hit this month.  I did not learn how to beautifully repair the tiny nip I made in my double wedding ring quilt, so I didn't gain any new skills. I'll need to do that this month!

 

My something old - quilting still more rings in that quilt - went well for the first week or so of the month until my quilting foot broke.  Still haven't been able to get to the store down in the city for a new one, so that's on a standstill at the moment. 

 

My April something old will be getting the quilting going again on this quilt, and making labels for both of my Dragonfly Party quilts before they need to go off for the various shows that they'll be in this year!   My something new - - - learning how to repair that snip in a gorgeous way. . .

 

Thanks to Lynne for coordinating this link-up!

 

 

NewFO Report for March

[here is the link to this party]

 

Whoa!!  My normal piecing machine is still broken and waiting to be taken to the shop, so the first half of the month I spent any non-DWR time washing/pressing stuff and cutting out the pieces from long-untouched kits in my storage. I got three of them processed!!

 

We have "Simply Fun," a batik set that's going to be a pretty queen size quilt one day, that I bought back in 2008:

 

 

 

I always - ALWAYS - have at least one young feline visitor when working at this table. Also, these are all kits from storage that get initial processing, then they are carefully boxed up with the pattern and notes to be re-stored for future sewing attention.

 

 

 

 

 

"Sunshine" was also cut out- another bed-sized quilt.  I loved working with the spring-like colors, and it came in a super cool fabric tote bag that makes for great continued storage:

 

 

 

 

 

"Anna's Mountains" will be a nice throw quilt some time - I do love toile prints:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And!!!  Something brand new - a couple of months ago I won Emily's "Boomerang" pattern from her blog giveaway away at Crazy Old Ladies Quilt, and I've been really wanting to work it up. I didn't have any fabric on hand for the background, so I had to get that, and bought several fat quarters to use with it. I filled out the requirements from my stash and got everything cut out despite all the "help" from the kittens.

 

 

 

Such sweeties "helping" with the cutting out of the background fabric. They made sure nothing blew away on me.  ;D

 

 

 

 

And then I found out my cousin's daughter is pregnant with a boy. I really wanted to make her a quilt, so I shopped my stash again to make another quilt from the same Boomerang pattern. I loved the idea of using some of my hot-air balloon fabric for the backing, and found a great blue for background fabric, then pulled several quarters and scraps that coordinated with the colors of the backing. I had broken down my quilting machine to piece one of my BOMs together, so I went ahead and pieced the Boomerang baby quilt.

 

 

 

 It made such a nice cheery quilt top, and I love the pattern in this dark background as well as the white that captured my fancy in the first place.  I got the top sandwiched, so this is ready to go as soon as I can quilt again.

 

 

 

Lots of NewFOs added to the list between the stale kits and the new pattern!! Thank you to Barbara for hosting this fun link-up every month. I love it.

 

 

 

 

 

Let's Book It!  Report - 
 

[Here is the link for this party]

 

Still deep in thesis work - two or three weeks left of intense archive digging - so my book attention remains limited to my Affairs of the Heart work. But I do love this project despite the trickiness sometimes of looking at fine hand-applique detail on the black background.  I made some decent progress on block 6. I have these 3 out of the 28 tricky little pieces left to stitch, then I can do the accent embroidery:

 

 

 

Thanks to Sharon for coordinating this link up! It keeps me forging ahead on this long term project that would otherwise be easily set aside indefinitely!